Saturday, May 16, 2015

May 15, 2015 (UNIAN News agency) The vote was
269 to 151 for the legislation, a blueprint for next year's spending on
military and other national security programs, the Associated Press reported. The
bill calls, among other things, for arming Ukrainian forces fighting
Russian-backed separatists, a move the Obama administration has so far
resisted. Overall, the House bill authorizes $515 billion for national defense
and another $89.2 billion for the emergency war-fighting fund for a total of
$604.2 billion. Another $7.7 billion is mandatory defense spending that doesn't
get authorized by Congress. The Senate version follows the same approach as the
House to funding the military. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 22-4
on Thursday to authorize $523 billion in base funding for the Defense
Department and other national security programs and an additional $90.2 billion
for the emergency war-fighting fund.